Posted on the school board's 7 p.m. agenda is a contract to hire Jeffrey Sultanik of the firm Fox Rothschild in Blue Bell. He is the board's labor attorney.

Corveleyn's firm, Newman, Williams, Mishkin, Corveleyn, Wolfe and Fareri, has represented the school board for 50 years, with Corveleyn advising the school board since 1991.

According to emails obtained by the Pocono Record through a public records request, school board President Richard Pierce emailed the board and Superintendent John Toleno on June 10.

"After being approached by several Board Members, and with the help of [board member Merlyn Clarke], all Board Members were polled and it was the opinion (feelings) of the board members (all 9) that we need an aggressive solicitor," Pierce's email said.

Sultanik has agreed to be the board's "transition solicitor" for the next three to six months, the email says. This will allow the board time to find a local solicitor.

"Please let Mr. Corveleyn know that the board will not be renewing with his firm," Pierce's email reads.

Corveleyn was first notified of the board's intentions after Toleno forwarded the email.

Pierce sent a second email last Friday to Toleno saying there is no need for Corveleyn to attend tonight's meeting and that Sultanik will be sitting in as solicitor instead.

As of Monday, Corveleyn had yet to be personally contacted by Pierce.

"I'm very disappointed. I'm disappointed with the fact that for the last 23 years I, and members of my firm, have been providing quality and timely services to the Stroudsburg School District, and the board at no time had any discussions with me directly about the fact our contract would not be renewed," he said.

"You represent a public client like that for 23 years — two meetings a month, making sure your vacations don't interfere with their meetings, being on call, providing very prompt, efficient services, answering all the administration's questions — and the president of the board doesn't even have the courtesy to contact you directly about why this is being done?"

Corveleyn's contract is renewed yearly for a term that lasts from July 1 to June 30.

Since 1991, Corveleyn has charged the district an $18,000 retainer that includes attendance at school board meetings, phone calls and most research.

Other activities, such as addressing Right-to-Know requests and work done for the upcoming closure of Ramsey Elementary, are billed extra at $160 per hour, which was scheduled to increase to $170 per hour in the most recently proposed contract, Corveleyn said.

Although the June 10 email says the board intends to hire Sultanik for a three- to six-month period, the proposed contract posted on tonight's agenda is for a one-year term from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015.

According to that contract, Sultanik will charge an hourly rate of $225.

"Mr. Corveleyn has done a great job for the district over the years, but we need someone who is going to be more aggressive for the district," Pierce said Monday. "The reality is we have a number of issues we are going through."

The district is in the process of "modernizing" its contracts and bringing them up to new state standards.

"The law governing school employees has changed, and the contracts need to reflect those changes," Pierce said.

This is a service Sultanik has been providing for the district.

Although Corveleyn would no longer represent the school board, his firm will continue to help the district with closing Ramsey this year and Clearview the next year, Pierce said.

As for the distance between Sultanik's firm and the school district, Pierce said Sultanik will participate in all of the meetings, but his participation could be done remotely, either by phoning in or via a service such as Skype.

Blue Bell is about two hours, or 86 miles, from Stroudsburg.

"He doesn't have to come to all of the meetings. We actually don't need to have a solicitor at the meetings. We can Skype him in if we need him to take part in the meetings," Pierce said.

Some board members were upset with the decision to sever ties with Corveleyn.

They also feel Pierce's email was misleading when it said all nine members were in agreement.

"I would never vote to get rid of Dan at this point. I would find it hard to believe all the board members feel this way. Some might, but we never took an official vote or straw poll on it," said board member John Jakobsen.

Board member Judy Magann agreed there was never a straw poll.

Board member Merlyn Clarke contacted Magann, Jakobsen and board member Robert Yarnall last week at Pierce's request.

"Jake, Judy and Bob don't speak to me. How this worked was, I had Merlyn Clarke reach out to them and get their feelings," Pierce said Monday.

Magann felt the conversation was casual and clearly expressed her support for Corveleyn.

Clarke agreed his conversations with those school board members were casual and he did not poll them on how they would vote.

"I can tell you there was agreement that we needed expert legal opinion with regard to school law, but there was at least, on the part of some of the people I talked to, a reluctance to let Corveleyn go because he's a nice guy and he's served the district for decades, and it's never a pleasant thing to let someone go like that," Clarke said.

"There is a legitimate place for trying to get a sense of where people are as a way of formulating policy proposals. There is, however, the danger that in the process of doing this, opinions are stated without full board deliberation and without the benefit of everybody hearing other people's opinions. It can be dicey," Clarke said.